Chapter 36.
Before beginning this chapter I think I must give some short description of my Jack, to me if not to others the best and cleverest man in the world. He was fairly tall, 5’ 11” I believe, but slight, his hair was very black and thick and his eyes were a soft brown, but his skin was exceedingly fair and he had a delicate look which, with his high forehead, made him look more of a scholar than a banker. But a banker he was and I fancy well thought of. His present position was shorthand writer to Mr. Henry Strathy in the Federal Bank. However, the Federal Bank about this time had ceased to be and Jack’s business was to help wind up its affairs.
There is not much to write about our first winter. I was ill most of it and spent my days lying on the sofa in the rather dark and dull dining room. I was not well enough to climb the stairs to the top of the house to the rooms which we were to have occupied, so my sister moved back to her bedroom and we took possession of the back bedroom on the lower flat. Jack was away all day and often at the meeting in the evening, so we had little time together and I felt married life was not all I had hoped for.
Just before Christmas my brother unexpectedly arrived and this was a great cheer. His high spirits kept the house lively and he was always on hand to be company to me. Dora was away all day teaching the Frank Cayleys and mother was always busy with her housekeeping’s, as there was quite a party in the house. In addition to ourselves we had Mr. Murray and later on Connie Checkley the sister of my dear friend Neen.
One incident stands out clearly. It was a clear, frosty Saturday and Jack and Graham drew me down to the bay on a hand sleigh. I think Dora went too, and we crossed and recrossed the bay in an ice boat. It was my first and only experience of this mode of traveling, and I enjoyed it very much. I think the change and exhilaration was the beginning of my getting better and I slowly came back to health again.
Just before Easter, which was the end of March, my brother left again for the West and has never revisited Toronto during all the forty years which have elapsed. The day before he left a Mr. and Mrs. Irwin and two little girls came to see us. They had lately come into fellowship in Winnipeg and were now looking for a house. Would my mother rent the house furnished? At first she refused. She said she could not break up her household and she and Dora would have nowhere to live. Also I was not strong enough to go into a house of my own. But Dora and Sophie persuaded her to consent and Mr. Irwin made it easier, saying that she could have the top flat to live in. This finally settled the matter and I breathed a deep sigh of relief at the thought of my own home and my Jack all to myself. I would remark here that under most circumstances it is a mistake for a young couple to begin life in the house of others. They need to get to know one another and to enjoy one another and it is rarely a wise experiment to try to do this in another person’s house.